Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Lord of The Rings: Frodo Character Analysis

As one of my favorite movies growing up, I decided to re-watch The Lord Of The Rings series in an attempt to recognize any of the Heroic Archtypes that we have been studying about. After watching all three movies, it was clear that Frodo, the protaginist, fit the description of the Hero as Scapegoat. Given the task of destroying the ring in the fires of Mount Doom, Frodo had to assume sole responsibility as the carrier of the ring, albeit with aid and protection from the rest of the fellowship along the way. This placed great pressure and stress on Frodo as he was the key cog in the wheel that drove towards the destruction of the ring.

At the beginning of the journey, the task placed upon Frodo appeared dauntingly impossible due to the barriers that stood in his way, namely how the entire focus of Sauron, the antagonist, was on finding Frodo and taking the ring. Many of the characteristics that Frodo possess's allows him to succed where many others would fail, as he is brave, selfless and unfailingly loyal. Although there are others in the land of middle-earth who hold these attributes, Frodo has a special something about him. That special something is an inner desire for goodness, as well as curiosity, that makes him stay strong even when he is physically and mentally exhausted crawling up Mount Doom. This is why he was entrusted with the burden of destroying the ring, because of his natural defiance and resistance against the evils in his world.

The journey that he underwent was a combination of the fool's errand and the quest to rid the land of danger. As the fellowship held a meeting at Rivendell, a Elven city hidden in the forest, to discuss the journey that they must undertake, there was a feeling of unattainibility to dispatch of the ring. This is where the journey begins as a sort of fool's errand, where only people who have unbreakable courage could attend. As the journey progressed, Frodo began to understand the magnitude of what he was doing and that he must take the task extremely seriously due to its importance. This is where his natural abilities and aptitiude for surviving on very little comes into play and affects the outcome of the LOTR. As one person in the many people who are in the movie, Frodo plays the most substantial role out of anybody.